Letting Go of The Ego

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about the idea of transcending the self. So there's an issue with this because trying to transcend the self often becomes a form of reinforcing the self. When we make it this obstacle to our peace, we give it life, we give it substance, a personality, an agenda, something that's attacking us, something that we have to defeat. But the self is not this tangible thing that we need to overcome.

It's more this subtle illusion that veils each of our sense stores, giving us the impression that there's someone experiencing life, someone separate, someone to defend, an individual you that is hearing, seeing, smelling. To see through the illusion of the self requires being still, centered and relaxed enough for the mind to let down its guard so that you can experience life moving through you as it is, without feeling like, oh, this is my thought, my emotion, my senses. When we try to transcend that experience, we're actually reinforcing it. We're making it into something that it's not. So the recognition of this, this reality that the self is an illusion of sorts really happens spontaneously.

We can't force it. We can't try to get there. All we can do is create the conditions for the mind to let go of this idea that this is mine, or this is me. And when we do relax, as we do in meditation, this deeper understanding of who we are beyond that personal pronoun of I or me happens spontaneously. So, all you have to do is trust the journey, keep meditating, and we'll continue that journey today.

So let's settle in for today's meditation.